00:00Because my parents got divorced when I was young, I never really had a
00:02traditional sense of what family should be like. An easy way for us to define
00:06families through bloodline, but that's not always the case. I started thinking
00:10about my friends who were adopted and what that experience was even like, and I
00:13wanted to ask them, what does family mean to them? I spoke with my friend George
00:18who made contact with their biological parents at age 16. So my adoption
00:22experience started with two teenagers who were madly in love and on an Air
00:27Force Base out in California. They had both just enlisted, they fell in love on
00:32the base, and she got pregnant. So they were fairly young and they decided pretty
00:37quickly that they wanted to give me up for adoption. And funnily enough, my
00:41adoptive parents, they were a bit of an older couple by that point. They
00:45were both in their mid-30s and they were having some fertility problems. Truly
00:4990s style, my parents put an ad in the penny saver saying that they wanted to
00:54be parents and they wrote basically like a bio about them, had a really like cheesy
00:5890s photo shoot attached. And so my birth mom reached out to my parents about the
01:04ad. I was supposed to be born in July and I was a few weeks late. So my birth
01:07parents and my parents lived together in an apartment for several weeks before I
01:12was born, just waiting. I know, I know, just waiting for little baby Georgie to be
01:18there. My birth mom and my mother were the only people in the delivery room and my
01:22adopted mom was the first person who got to hold me. What made you want to seek
01:26out your birth parents? So I decided to approach my adoptive father when I was
01:31about 16 years old. I just sort of told him in the lightest of terms, you know, I'm
01:37thinking about my birth parents a lot, maybe I want to meet them. A day later I
01:42was on my Facebook and I got a random notification from this lady wanting to be
01:48my friend. And you know, I saw her name and I didn't know who it was, but it came
01:53with an, like an attached message that said my sweet angel as the title. And the
02:00minute I read that, I just knew, I knew it was her. I cared so deeply about what she
02:05would think about me and all this sort of stuff, but she immediately came back with
02:09love and now I have a relationship with both of them. They're my two other parents.
02:13So you now have two sets of parents. Lucky you. I have a great different
02:18relationship with both of them and I get so much just from having multi-generational
02:22parents. You got the best of both worlds. I know exactly and I never, I never thought
02:27how magical it could be. So you're completely in touch with them. I text both
02:31of them pretty regularly and furthermore I'm in contact with my eight birth
02:35siblings who share my quirks, my face. Yeah, and I got to meet people who looked
02:44like me for the first time. George reuniting with their family was very
02:47important for understanding their identity. And lucky enough for George, they
02:50have two sets of parents. That's incredible. But I wanted to talk to someone
02:54who was adopted later in life. So I decided to talk to my friend Raquel, who was
02:58adopted just last week. I'm 16 years old and last Tuesday I got adopted by my
03:03stepdad and it was the best day ever. Why was it important for you to get
03:07adopted? He's really been my father. I don't consider him my stepdad. He's just
03:11simply my dad and I just really want to change my last name to his and just
03:16simply make it official. The judge said his opening remarks, we made our statements
03:20and then he told me to bang the gavel to make it official and as soon as I
03:24banged it just tears started streaming down my face. My whole family was crying so
03:28it was, it was amazing. Why did you want to make it official? I pretty much knew
03:33that I wanted to make it official when I was probably eight but I was never brave
03:39enough to go through with it. I didn't want to go through all the process with
03:43the lawyers and having to confront my biological dad. I didn't want to go
03:46through all that but then this past year I was just like I need to get it over
03:51with. I need to do it. I want him to know that I want this more than anything in
03:54the world. He was just so happy and he couldn't hold it in. I've only seen him cry
03:59twice. What has your adoptive father taught you? My dad always reminded me
04:03that I'm not less of his child than his biological children. It's not in the DNA
04:08to be a parent, it's in the heart and they just love you no matter what. It was
04:12amazing to see how Raquel connected to her stepfather. Hearing about that
04:15connection made me want to talk to a parent of an adopted child to see what
04:18that process was like for them. I talked to my friend Lauren who grew up with
04:21adoptive siblings and adopted her own son two years ago. My adoption journey was a
04:26little over a year from when I made the decision that I was going to adopt and
04:31my son is now almost two and it's been an amazing adventure. I always knew
04:37adoption was going to be a part of my life. I just think it's such a beautiful
04:40thing and it's how my brother and sister came to my life and in my family. What
04:45was the process like itself? I worked with a consultant who helped me put
04:49together a profile book that was given to prospective moms that talked about my
04:54life and pictures of me and my family. Once it all comes together it's magical.
04:59Despite the roller coaster, had I to do it again I would do it in a heartbeat to
05:03know that my son was gonna end up being my son. What words of wisdom do you have to
05:07someone who's watching this that might be adopted? I think it's important to
05:10always remember that you are loved by so many people. You were chosen and you're loved.
05:18You were loved by your birth family and are and you're loved by your adoptive family.
05:24Talking with my friends today made me realize that you can actually build your
05:27family through love and support.
